The present invention relates to a belt clip for a cellular telephone and a method of retaining the telephone on a person""s belt.
Cellular telephones are currently quite compact, having a length of between approximately 3-4 inches and a width of approximately 1.5-2.5 inches and a thickness or depth of between 0.5-2.5 inches. Some persons, particularly males, prefer to carry their cellular telephone or cell phone on a belt about their waist. These waist belts are identified herein as a xe2x80x9cbelt.xe2x80x9d Various belt clips for cellular telephones have been devised. However, many of the belt clips require that the cell phone itself carry a certain attachment that interlocks with a complementary attachment on the belt clip. Hence, these types of cellular telephone belt clips include (a) a first clip member which captures the person""s belt and (b) a complementary clip member which coacts with the first clip member permanently or semi-permanently attached to the rear side of the cell phone. For example, the first clip member may be a socket connection and the complementary member a fitted ball for the socket.
The present invention provides an almost universal belt clip for a cellular telephone which does not require any type of clip member to be permanently or semi-permanently attached to the rear side of the cell phone.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a belt clip for a cellular telephone which has a rigid back plate slightly larger than the cell phone and an expansible fabric or flexible layer on the front side of the back plate which fully or partially covers the cell phone when the cell phone is inserted intermediate between the expansible layer and the rigid back plate.
Another object of the present invention to provide a method for retaining a cellular telephone on a belt by removably mounting the substantially rigid plate on a person""s belt and then at least partially surrounding the cellular telephone with elastic material, capturing the cell phone between the material and the rigid plate.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a belt clip for a cellular telephone which can accommodate a wide range of cell phones, that is, to accommodate a significant range of cell phones having different sizes.
The belt clip for a cellular telephone includes a substantially rigid back plate and an expansible fabric layer (or flexible expansible cover) partially covering the front of the back plate. The expansible layer has a degree of elasticity sufficient to secure the cell phone between the expansible layer and the back plate. A common clip (typically, an inverted U-shaped member) is mounted to the rear side of the back plate which enables the wearer to place the retained cell phone and belt clip onto his or her belt. The expansible layer may include a grip tab mounted on a top edge of the expansible layer to facilitate insertion and removal of the cell phone from the interspace between the expansible layer and the back plate. The method includes removably mounting the substantially rigid plate onto the person""s belt and at least partially surrounding the cell phone with elastic material and capturing the cell phone between the material and the rigid plate.